Analysts: Boeing May See Upside from Buybacks and 3 Other Research Notes to Peruse

Boeing (NYSE:BA): Buckingham shifted its valuation on Boeing to 2015 and raised its price target to $136 from $122. The firm maintains its third-quarter earnings per share estimate of $1.59 as opposed to the consensus estimate of $1.54, and sees further upside from share buybacks. The shares are Buy rated.

Take-Two Interactive Software (NASDAQ:TTWO): Stifel increased its EPS estimate for Take-Two during the 2014 fiscal year to $2.80 from $2.43, citing stronger-than-expected sales of the company’s latest Grand Theft Auto game. The firm expects the company to benefit significantly from digital sales of the game, and it thinks that the visibility of the company’s game pipeline should improve going forward. Stifel keeps a Buy rating on the stock.

Splunk (NASDAQ:SPLK): Canaccord raised Splunk’s price target to $68 from $62 following Tuesday’s customer conference and analyst events. The firm has increased confidence in Splunk’s product roadmap and believes that customer-driven use cases for the firm’s machine data analytics will continue to grow. The shares are Buy rated.

Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ): After analyzing data, Wells Fargo believes that most of Johnson & Johnson’s key drugs launched since 2011 are outperforming expectations. The firm predicts that the better-than-expected performance of the recently launched drugs could raise the company’s third-quarter revenue by $156 million and increase its third-quarter EPS by 2 cents to 3 cents. Moreover, Wells thinks the drugs could drive the company’s pharmaceutical sales growth over the longer term. It keeps an Outperform rating on the stock.